Day 307

Monday January 4

That tier four thing escalates today as a full national lockdown is announced. The rule/law(?) is now that you don’t leave your house unless you absolutely have to, although shopping and exercise are fine, provided you stay in your local area. This ban on non-essential travel now also means that even band rehearsals are out. Even if you wanted to flout this rule/law(?), carrying a huge bass case around would make it pretty obvious that you weren’t just out for a walk, and you certainly couldn’t argue you were taking part in anything essential. But even so, with this new lockdown, I can report that this is nothing like what we saw in March with empty streets. So many places still seem to be open and the streets and roads continue to be full. What I can say is that whatever this is will continue until March. So no bar until at least then. Back to Players Path it is.

As to where we are in England and why all this is happening, as January develops, the rate of Covid infections in London rises to as much as one person in 30, we’re hearing of ambulances queueing at hospitals, and we will see a daily death rate reported as being far far higher than anything we were hearing about even at the height of the first UK peak back in April. Please, I don’t want to get into any kind of debate over any of that in here. It is not the place. I’m merely mentioning what I just have in order to put the reasons for the current lockdown into context.

Day 314

Monday January 11

I’ve got to admit, for my entire time in London I’ve been hugely remiss with the online presence, but I’ve always put much more stock in actually going out, getting up on stages and meeting and playing with different people. Essentially, actual networking rather than sitting at home, posting Youtube videos and hoping people see them and get in touch. I’m not at all deriding that method as I know it can be effective and is a good thing to be able to direct people to, but put a person in front of me that I can actually get to know anytime. But also yeah, I’m not particularly an online, tech person. However, the harsh reality is that in the total absence of live music and general all round socialising, the only way to have a presence now is online. So to that, Maja has turned up at the perfect time and I am now there in a really good, professional way. Ridiculously, SBL’s Players Path has also added to this because I’ve spent the last few months working on that and getting new videos up which are totally representative of where I am as a player right now.

Day 329

Tuesday January 24

I’m calling this January 24 just to bring this thing more or less up to date, but it actually covers about two weeks all in one go.

Maja strikes again. As if building me a bright shiny new website and presence to go along with it wasn’t enough, she now suggests we turn our (her) attention to my WordPress site which hosts the Diaries for the wider public, or anyone not on SBL. To get right down to it, for many reasons I either don’t fully understand, or don’t hugely want to go into – mostly (entirely) my fault – the WP site is a bit of a mess chronologically and not hugely user friendly in that regard. Maja works her considerable tech magic and, to my eyes at least, in no time at all has tidied the whole thing up and made a revolutionary difference to the reader experience. There are some housekeeping things I have to learn to use WP in a different way to be able to keep this up as I go forwards, but she’s there to talk me through it and make sure I know what I’m doing. I think I make a passable student in this regard.

My end of this wonderful deal is to help Maja along with her bass studies and she’s not only proving to be a quite remarkable and diligent student, but is also working her way into the band scene and having quite a few adventures along the way. I’m covering a period a little beyond January 14 right now, but in the absence of my own adventures, it’s now great to be able to take part in and, in real time, hear about someone else’s. Apart from that, if it wasn’t for what we’ve got going on now, I’d have practically nothing to write home about at all. Not to mention the fact that we’ve developed a really good friendship in our regular phone and skype calls over the past few weeks which can effortlessly run into multiple hours, sometimes going nowhere near bass, music or anything tech related. But when we get down to business, we really mean it and concentration is total. This could be her talking me through the intracacies of website navigation and manipulation, or me helping out with bass related stuff. On another practical side, anyone who’s been anywhere near bandworld knows quite a considerable number of dilemmas and choices can be thrown up, and I’m able to offer my own counsel on how such things can be handled, with the proviso of course that this is not an exact science and my words are purely there to be weighed up against any other opinions, including Maja’s own of course.

In this, I have to say that I do help nudge Maja out of her first band when she starts to think she’s outgrown it, even though she was definitely already leaning that way anyway. As soon as that deed is done, she starts casting about looking for something else, but it isn’t easy finding a band at the best of times, let alone in times of Corona. Let alone when you’ve only been playing six or seven months as it is. There are a few bands out there looking, but nothing seems quite right. There’s a brief moment when we think we’ve found the perfect originals band; great songwriting, great production, a good vision and really simple basslines. I wouldn’t mind being in this band myself. We make a plan to get together on Skype and I can talk her through a few of the basslines. But before we’re able to do that, the band replies to her inquiry and says the spot is filled. Damn. Come on guys. Take the advert down. Apart from anything else, that would make your new bass player really paranoid. I wouldn’t at all say that the wrong decision was made to leave her band, but I can feel Maja’s frustration at not finding another one. I tell her that this can take time and not to get frustrated, and not to jump at the first thing that comes along either, but added to the guilt at leaving her friends, this frustration really isn’t a nice experience and I’m feeling it too.

For extra Maja detail, she’s writing about her experiences in her own diary here: http://campus.scottsbasslessons.com/campus/index.php?/topic/68685-majas-diaries

Day 335

Sunday January 31

Since I first started this thing way back in July 2014 with the Costa Blanca Diary, and also through other various juncture, I’ve been told a few times that people have been living vicariously through me as I’ve followed paths and had adventures they may not have been able to have for whatever reasons. Now a table has turned. With lockdown UK having curtailed all my musical activity I’m now living vicariously through Maja and the only bass related material I have to talk about is what she’s doing and how I’m able to help with it as far as preparation is concerned. So really, my diary is currently Maja’s diary and not a whole lot else. Given the existence of her own writings, I’m going to leave a lot of that detail there, but what we have here for now now is her looking for a new project having left her first band, Mad Box.

A few days ago she was called by a professional cover band and invited to audition. That was a very exciting call in itself. Since then we’ve been working together on what songs to learn and how to go about that process. I’ve been helping with this by learning the songs myself, simply because, with my experience, I’m quicker at that, and then we’ve had skype sessions where I’ve gone through those songs with Maja. It’s been a tough process but she’s proved the absolutely perfect student, as hard working and dedicated as it’s possible to be.

Today is her audition for that band, just seven months after starting to play bass. Around 7 O’Clock I get a message from her that she’s passed the audition and has been accepted into the band. This is verging on an impossible achievement. Or really, it is impossible. I’ve been around cover bands a lot and I can’t think of anyone who’s ended up playing in one after anything less than a year and a half and even that is a huge stretch. Seven months? If you’re just starting out in your first seriously sketchy garage band after that amount of time you’re doing well. To be embarking on the professional road is just ridicliosity of ridiculous proportions. Yet, here she is. It is a total reason for celebration but she doesn’t really have anyone to celebrate it with. So we do something I’ve never done before. We have a little phone party and a whole bunch of drinks together while very excitedly talking about how we (we???!!) have got this far and what it all means. It really just means very very well done and wait a second while I go get myself another top up.

I should say here that a few days after all this I give Paul a call just to see if he’s ever had any players on his books who’ve been going less than a year. He really can’t think so, saying the shortest time he’s seen someone go from beginner to band in his circles is two years, with most people having been at it at least five or six before really being comfortable in a full on professional coverband. So yeah. What we’re looking at here really is something a bit special.

Apart from celebrating, what we’re also doing here is just hanging out. For the very first time just for the sake of it. No learning, no teaching, no web desiging or web coaching. Two people talking about nothing at times, and simply having a laugh.

Through our celebrations, I tell her that the way this is shaping up, she’ll be gigging with a professional band before I will. But really, what the hell’s going on? I’m mentoring practically a beginner bass player, and she’s got a professional opportunity, and I’ve also been mentoring Paul with his writing and now he’s on his way to becoming an established professional writer in a few of his very specialist fields – darts and music. And here I am sitting on my backside. Of course I’m only doing nothing because everything’s shut down, but still. All that said and considered, yes I am very happy for both of them.

Now while I’m here, I think it’s a very relevant time for a little Players Path/ professional analysis and opinion and how it translates to the real world.

Before Players Path, I’d never really been able to quantify in that way, but I can a little now. Maja may be on the spectrum of beginner, but I’d say she’s just peeked above beginner and starting to pull away at the edges of level five. When I first got to know Players Path a little, my initial feeling was that someone at a solid level five could be a pro player with the right band. Now I know PP really well, if anything, I feel even more certain of that now. Maja is just coming out of level four, is able to hit parts of five, and here we go with a pro opportunity. Yes there are some songs that are very reachable even at the lower levels, but I think someone would need to have at least played long enough to have hit level five before comfortably having good enough technique and ability to learn repertoire quickly enough.

Digging in a little deeper, and if we’re just looking at party cover bands here, I’d say there’s little in any setlist that demands much above a level six. Yes, there can be very complicated and fast runs in pop some basslines, but you don’t have to play them all, unless you’re looking at something like Sir Duke. But to be in any kind of band, just steadily holding down the bottom end with a nice fill or riff every now and then, as long as they haven’t picked out any massively tricky guitar/bass unison runs, you can handle that at a five if you’re playing’s solid. Going further, there are tons of bass players at a professional level, especially in coverband world, who never make it past level seven. I know because I was one of them until I joined my Madrid blues band sometime in 2012, soon after discovering and joining SBL purely for that reason as I began the process of reinventing myself as a bass player and finally getting to know how to play for real real after a whole lifetime spent as a (often very well regarded) bass player with very good technique and imagination and a good ear, but little else. Thinking about it a little more, I’ve just come to a kind of thought that level seven is something of a glass ceiling and a place you can reach over a period of years with nothing more than good ears, good technique and experience. Yeah, improvisation from time to time, but nothing really out there, but then you don’t need anything to be too crazy. And I think that’s where a massive proportion of players, even professionals, pretty much stay, just with a bigger and bigger repertoire. Into eight and nine, and you really start to know properly what you’re doing regarding theoretical knowledge and applying it, while most players, especially rock and pop, will say something like, ‘Why bother with learning chords and scales and all that stuff? I’m doing just fine here.’ And they are. I know I did. Up to a point. I was often frustrated at my level of soloing. Ha! Soloing. And I often had to go away and learn a part rather than just jam it out there and then. But going away and learning, or taking a minute or two out of the tune to get a part or work out something to play was just fine in those contexts. Looking into level eight, and something like Hola for example. It contains a solo going through bars of F7 C7 (#9). Scott himself talks about meeting guys who look like they play amazing, slapping the hell out of the thing and everything else. Probably seem like level niners. Then the second he asks them to jam in Bb, he gets a blank look. I think I’d put those guys in level seven. Afterall, give them a few bars of improvising, let alone soloing, over an F7 C7 (#9) and see how they go.

So yeah. I think I’m concluding that the professional range, at least for a certain kind of band and musician, generally begins around level five and mushrooms out somewhere in seven.